He Is Risen | Frank Brancato

As has been already mentioned, welcome everyone for coming.

It is so good to see everyone that's here.

There are faces in this audience I haven't seen for a while, and

it's wonderful to see you. We have some visitors that are

among us and we want to say welcome, and we're just so

grateful you're here with us today.

It's a very special day because it's the Lord's Day.

It's the first day of the week, and I always consider it an

honor to speak concerning the Word of God.

And I'm going to talk about a subject, as has been mentioned

just a moment ago, before we sang that last song that we

rejoice in today because Jesus is risen.

Before we get into this, I want to just notice our introductory

pack passage and I have a couple introductory things that I might

say in Matthew 28, beginning in verse 2.

And behold, there was a great earthquake.

For an Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came

and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it.

His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing

white as snow. And the guards took for fear of

him and became like dead men. But the Angel answered and said

to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus

who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen

as He said. Come see the place where the

Lord lay. Before we get into the

resurrection. Just a few words regarding the

events that transpired just prior to this that we've studied

in our series leading up to this and that is regarding the

resurrection after the Lord Jesus Christ was tried, after He

was beaten and scourged and as after He was taken to a Roman

cross and he hung between heaven and earth for about 6 hours

after he was given the sour wine in his thirst done in mockery.

Jesus said those words. It is finished.

Some translations say it is accomplished and Jesus was

letting the world know I've done it.

It is over. And he says to his Father,

Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.

And Jesus died for our sins on that great day.

It's about 3:00 PM now on the day of preparation, and

something very significant has to happen.

He has to be buried to fulfill prophecy.

And they only have 3 hours to get that done because by 6:00

PM, that was the Sabbath. That's the next day.

And in order to count the day of that day that he died, he's got

to be buried before 6:00 PM. On the scene comes a man by the

name of Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple.

And the Bible says he was a secret disciple for fear of the

Jews. You remember that when Jesus was

preaching on this earth, when he had his personal ministry, there

was a decree that went forth among the Jews by the religious

leaders, and that was this. If anybody professed Jesus as

the Christ, they were cast from the synagogue.

So Joseph of Arimathea, for fear of the Jews, was a secret

disciple. Now the Bible says in Isaiah

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

chapter 53 that his grave was to be assigned among wicked men,

but that's not what would happen.

He would be with a rich man in his death.

And there just happened to be a rich man, a secret disciple of

Jesus that had a brand new grave unoccupied nearby.

And he was Joseph of Arimathea. He was also a member of the

Sanhedrin, but the Bible says he did not consent to the death of

Jesus Christ. He already does.

The Scripture says he summoned the courage.

I'm going to tell you, I don't care if it's back then on that

occasion, or I don't care if it's right now in 2025.

You have to summon the courage to stand up for Jesus.

He had to summon the courage. And remember, there's nothing

wrong with fear because there is no courage where there is No

Fear. In other words, your courage is

your response to fear. That's the difference between a

courageous person and a coward. Is your response to fear.

Oh, he had fear all right. He was at stake of losing

everything. Sanhedrin writes business, all

kinds of pressure on him, but he summoned the courage.

And what does he do? He comes and he begs the body of

Jesus from Pilate, and the body is taken down, the body of Jesus

taken down from the cross, and he wraps his body and he lays

them in a new unoccupied tomb. You know, I read it was quite an

honor to be laid to rest in an unoccupied tomb, a rich man's

tomb. Jesus crucified like a criminal

that he was not, and he was buried in a rich man's tomb.

But there's more. They got to prepare the body

now. So a man is summoned by the name

of Nicodemus and Nicodemus shows up in the Bible, says in John's

account, he shows up with 100 lbs of myrrh and aloes to wrap

the body of Jesus. You know what's amazing about

that? Significant.

I think it's very significant. I think there's no accident

here. The only time in all of history

where they used £100 to bury somebody is when they buried a

king crucified between Mal factors.

Buried like the king that he is, he is king of kings.

He's Lord of Lords. When he's buried, though, they

roll the stone in front of the entrance, and the stone was

rolled in front of the entrance to keep out animals and to keep

out grave robbers. Now remember, it's not the

Sabbath yet. It's not the Sabbath until 6:00

PM. So guess who's there?

There's two very special women just hanging around, two very

precious women, those Marys, Mary Magdalene and Mary the

mother of Joseph's, they just happen to be hanging around.

What are they doing there? Well, first of all, Jesus was

not buried in a public cemetery. He was buried in a private

grave. Therefore these women had to

know where the grave was so they can come back later after three

days and complete and complete the tending to the body of Jesus

Christ. Precious women hanging around.

Notice but then in Matthew 27 and 62 on the next day.

By the way, non Jews called that Friday evening on the next day

that was the Sabbath. In other words, after 6:00, the

day following the day of preparation.

The word preparation was the word Paris Fue, or the day

before the Sabbath common name, and it was actually became a

colloquial phrase for Friday, the day after the the day of

preparation. Notice the chief priests and the

Pharisees gathered together to pilot the chief priests.

Who in the world were they? Did you know the chief priests

were predominantly made-up of the Sadducees and the Pharisees

are together now? So you got the Sadducees and you

got the Pharisees teaming up. And this is only the second time

that I can find in all the New Testament where the Sadducees

teamed up with the Pharisees. Why do you remember on Tuesday,

in the last week in the life of Jesus, He had already made his

triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Sunday, by Tuesday was the

day of questions. You know what happened?

The Sadducees and the Pharisees get together and they think

they're going to stump Jesus. I'm going to tell you right now,

you ain't stumping Jesus. Big mistake.

They think they're going to get him against the ropes.

Oh no, Brilliant. Jesus shows up and took care of

the whole mess. But Sadducees and Pharisees who

were at theological odds with each other joined together on

that day, and they joined together on this day.

Why did they have theological odds?

Because the Pharisees believed in the resurrection or a life

after this one, and the Sadducees did not.

Big theological differences. Oh, but on this occasion,

they're going to team up. They're going to team up.

There's two. There's something they had in

common #1 the Sadducees did not want, and I'm going to phrase it

like this because that's how they felt it really was.

They did not want the resurrection tale of Jesus to be

circulated, and neither did the Pharisees.

Even though the Pharisees believed in a resurrection, they

just didn't believe Jesus would be resurrected and they didn't

consider him to be the Son of God.

OK, they want to squelch that. So verse 63, they come to Pilate

and they say, Sir, we remember that while he was still alive.

How that deceiver said, after three days I will arise.

You know, the most classic prediction of this is in Matthew

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12, and it's by Jesus Christ himself.

And I love this because sometimes people are kind of

like this today, like they were back then.

They came to Jesus and they, you know, they want they want a

sign. Give me a sign.

You know, anytime you want a sign, you don't have any faith.

I had somebody say one time, if you just show me proof, I did

write in the Bible. Oh, but give me proof.

Yeah, I just did in the Bible. Well, give me proof that God

created. Oh, got it right here.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Gotcha. Right there.

There it is, but if you can be proof just did.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of

things not seen. What they wanted though is they

didn't accept the teaching of Jesus.

What they wanted is give me a sign.

You know what Jesus said, He answered and said to them an

evil and adulterous generation. 6 after sign, and no sign will

be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For as Jonah was 3 days and three nights in the belly of the

great fish, so will the Son of Man be also three days and three

nights in the heart of the earth.

A classic prediction of Jesus being raised from the dead on

the third day. All right, so verse 64 therefore

command that the tomb is what Pilate says, be made secure

until the third day. And then if you do that, lest

His disciples come by night and steal him away and say to the

people, He has risen from the dead, so the last deception will

be worse than the first. I was sitting there this morning

in my office looking over my sermon and I got to thinking

about something here. Isn't it true that sometimes,

actually a lot of the time, we judge people or we judge others

by way of our own character? In other words, people judge

other people based on their own character often times.

Give you an example. If a person is dishonest, they

expect everybody else to be dishonest.

If they're evil, they expect other people to be evil.

If they're suspicious, they think everybody else is going to

be suspicious. If they're not trustworthy, they

don't trust others. And oftentimes people judge

other people based on their own character.

So notice what they're doing here, lest they do what the last

deception will be worse than the first.

They're judging these men on their own character.

The religious leaders look to the disciples.

The other leaders here look to the disciples and they say these

aren't honest men, God fearing men.

These are men that are not devastated by the loss of their

leader. These are men that are going to

be rogues awaiting to pull off the greatest hoax in all of

history. That's what they thought.

So here's Pilate's solution. By the way, Pilate made some

terrible decisions throughout the entire process of the trial

and the crucifixion. And the only thing he did right,

the only thing is the inscription that was put up, the

accusation above the head of Jesus, and that was this is

Jesus the King of the Jews. Then they said, no, don't say

that, Pilate say he said I'm the king of the Jews.

Pilate says what I've written. I've written the only thing he

did right. So in this case, when they come

to him, we got a problem here. Here is Pilot's solution.

Pilot says you have a guard. Go your way.

Make it as secure as you know how.

Remember it's going to be 3 days.

All you got to do is secure it for three days.

So they went and made the tomb secure.

Notice sealing the stone and setting the guard.

I don't know what it looked like.

This is a picture here of what it probably depicted.

They say, but I'm not sure what I've read is this.

There was probably some some kind of a cord that stretched

across the stone and on each side of the cord was sealed with

wax. Kind of like with a signet ring.

You know, a signet ring when you seal a document.

Same kind of a deal. In other words, it wasn't

something that was a barrier to keep the door shut.

What it was is this. It was something that told

people, I don't know how else to phrase it, Unauthorized

personnel. Any unauthorized personnel, if

you break the seal, you commit a high crime.

That's what it was. Brilliant by God, I know you got

all these people, all these evil people involved, I get it.

But everything was orchestrated by God.

Why is that? Look how brilliant this is.

Look how brilliant God is and they think they got this dialed

in. Look at God.

Fowler says it this way. The seal means that non

disciples are forced to be the first to bring the astounding

news to Jesus's enemies that all of their precautions have been

futile. In other words, it's not the

disciples who tamper with the tomb or the body.

He arose. It's proof the Sabbath is now

over. So we go back to Matthew's

account in Matthew 28 and verse 2 and behold, there was a great

earthquake, for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and

came back and rolled the stone from the door and sat on it.

Now I got to tell you, I've seen paintings.

Maybe you have two. It's interesting paintings.

I've seen paintings where the stone was rolled away and then

here comes Jesus walking out. Do you know the stone being

rolled away was not to let Jesus out?

You think Jesus needed somebody to roll the stone away?

Kind of like Lazarus when he says Lazarus come forth after he

told the roll with the stone. Jesus can walk through the

stone. Jesus could appear on one side

of the stone and then a second later appeared on the other

side. He didn't need the stone rolled

away to get out. The stone was rolled away not to

let the Lord out. The stone was rolled away to let

the others in, and sitting there on the stone was an Angel.

Verses 3 and 4 about this Angel. His countenance was like

lightning, and his clothing is white as snow.

And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

You ever been so scared you couldn't move?

You know the phrase scared stiff?

I mean, you are so petrified you can't move.

And you just shake. You're paralyzed temporarily,

metaphorically, but in your mind you can't move.

My question is why were they afraid?

I'll tell you what some people say as the reason they were

afraid, they became like dead men, meaning they were

paralyzed. And some say, well, This is why,

because they failed to secure the tomb, because a soldier that

was given the task of guarding A prisoner, by the way, if the

prisoner escaped, he lost his life.

We know that. So because of that, everybody

assumes, and because they're afraid later on, and because the

Jews actually backed them up and protect them later on, the

soldiers. But what he was afraid of, he

was afraid because he had let Jesus go.

He's now gone. However it was the body of Jesus

is gone and the stone is rolled away.

Not so fast. Let's just look to the

scriptures and find out why they were so scared.

Sometimes you can overthink these things.

Notice it says why the guardship?

For what? Fear of him?

For fear of the Angel it describes, His countenance was

like lightning and his clothing as white as snow, and they

feared because of him. Folks, I'm going to tell you

something. It was an Angel of God.

But this is an act of God. And when an act of God occurs, I

don't care who you are, you are powerless.

If God wants something and it's an act of God, it doesn't make

any difference how much power you think you got, you got none.

All these powerful soldiers that had all this authority, they

were powerless, an act of God, kind of like when Jesus was in

the garden and they came to Jesus and Jesus sees them coming

in advance that we've already studied about.

And Jesus says, who you looking for?

And he says they said Jesus of Nazareth.

And Jesus says I am. It doesn't even say he in the

original, it says I am. And they fell, 500 men fell

back. You know why they fell back?

Because they were in the presence of deity, and Jesus

professed I am and he as deity, they fell.

They were powerless. If it's an act of God, I'm

telling you, you're powerless. And they were afraid.

Verses 5 and 6, notice, but the Angel of the Lord said to the

women, oh, these precious women, I'm going to spend a little time

about these women. Do not be afraid, for I know

that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here, for he is risen first.

He says, do not be afraid. Have you stopped to consider the

role that these precious women have?

It won? The disciples, were they, I

don't know, they're just way over there.

They're all the way over there. The women were there.

The Sabbath is over. They're about to give first hand

eyewitness testimony to the resurrection and that is

brilliant. By God, they've got no axe to

grind. They've got no agenda.

It's not like the apostles who could have gone there and

witnessed the resurrection. They could have said you're

lying. No, it was 2 precious women and

the Angel says don't be afraid and then come see the place

where the Lord lay. Have you ever stopped to

consider what it must have been like for the rest of their life?

Mary? What was it like?

What was it like? The one that they seek is not

dead, He's alive. In other words, they came

seeking a dead man. They leave seeking A risen

Savior, and their hopes are full of wonder, amazement, and hope.

Verses 7 and 8, they're told, go quickly and tell his disciples

by the Angel. They said, He said that he's

risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into

Galilee. There you will see him.

Behold, I've told you. So they went out quickly from

the tomb, and fear, and great joy, with fear and great joy,

and ran to bring his disciples word.

Then notice please in verse 9. And as they went to tell the

disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, rejoice.

So they came and they held him by the feet, and they worshipped

him. What would that have been?

Like The Angel said, have hope. He's alive, he's risen.

Go tell his disciples. And then all of a sudden there's

Jesus, and they're so overwhelmed.

These precious women can't contain themself, and they fall

down at the feet of Jesus and they hold his feet.

Please get that. Yes, they touched him.

Yes, they touched him, and they held his feet and they

worshipped him. He's worthy of their worship.

We have to go to John's account for more though.

We got to go to John's account because maybe you're saying

you're thinking in your mind, well, doesn't it say somewhere

touch me not for I'm not going to say, well, here we go.

We go to John's account. John chapter 20, the new King

John 20 · chapter mention

James says Jesus said to her, in other words, as they fell down

at his feet to worship him and they clung to him and they held

him. Jesus says, do not cling to me.

Then he's going to get specific as to why and what he means.

Well, the old King James says this.

Touch me. Not in the original.

It says this. Stop clinging to me.

That's what it says in the original.

So in other words, there's no contradiction.

Sometimes if you look at Don't Touch me, it looks like there's

a contradiction. When they fell and grabbed him

and worshiped him, they did fall.

They did grab him. They did worship him.

They didn't hold his feet. What he's saying is, is stop

clinging to me. And then he said this.

Here's the reason why, for I have not yet ascended to my

father. Let me give you some theories as

to what this means. Here's some theories, theory #1

theory #1 is that Jesus was telling them I've not yet

ascended to my father, which is going to happen in 40 days.

In other words, it's not time for me to leave yet.

You can let go. I'm, I'm talking about, I've

read this from commentaries, others say this, I'm going to be

resurrected. Here's his point in 30 days.

I'm going to ascend to my father in 40 days, ultimately in my

spiritual body. But see, I'm now in my fleshly

body. See, it's still me.

It's not time yet. And while these things may have

merit, I think there's a better explanation.

I believe what he's saying is this.

I believe Jesus needed to fulfill one final prophetic

type. Jesus fulfilled all of the

prophecies, talked about all those that were fulfilled, and

the chances of that crazy only happens if God's involved.

We already preached on that, right?

Well, there's one prophetic type that still has to be fulfilled.

We look in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 9, verse 7, But into the

Hebrews 9:7

second part, the high priest went in alone once a year, not

without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people

sins committed in ignorance. So in the Tabernacle and later

in the temple, the high priest, by the way, verse 6 says the

common priest, that's a picture of us Christians.

We're in the first part or the holy place, which is a picture

of the Church accomplishing the service of God.

Right now, only the high priest on the Day of Atonement for the

sins of the people will take the blood sacrifice into the Most

Holy place in the Tabernacle and also in the temple, and bring

the blood sacrifice before the mercy seat and before the

presence of God for the atonement of the sins of the

people. And it was done every year.

OK, prophetic type, Old Testament, Jesus is our ultimate

high priest. Jesus, on this ultimate Day of

Atonement, I believe, took the blood, His blood, as He was

still in the flesh, to His Father before the presence of

God, and gave the sacrifice of His blood to fulfill the

prophetic type. Now let me just say this.

If that's not true, this is the only prophecy by way of either

verbal or typical that was not fulfilled by Jesus Christ

Himself while He was in fleshly human form.

That's free. Makes more sense to me.

So he says stop clinging to me. Now we know in addition to this,

Jesus would ultimately ascend to his Father in Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

He does ascend to his Father ultimately and we we know that

and you know, as he ascended up toward his father, those two men

in white apparel says, why are you standing up, you Galileans?

Why are you looking up into heaven?

Jesus, the same man that you're looking at will so come in like

manner as you've seen him go into the heavens.

That was ultimate. I just don't think this passage

is referring to that day 40 days later because you know what the

King James says, touch me not well, you know what happened 8

days after he said this? He told Thomas, stick your hand

in my in the holes in my hand. I think he was fulfilling that

prophetic type. OK, let me talk about the fact

that Jesus not only ascended, but he will return.

He will return John chapter 20 verse 710 verses before this,

when the grave was open and Peter looks in, it says in the

handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with

the linen clothes, but folded together in one place by itself.

Now just a little cultural history.

Cultural history here. If a person went to a meal, they

went to a function and they were having a meal, it was customary

if that person was going to get up from the dining area and

leave and be done and not come back, he would take the napkin.

He would ball it up, wad it up and he would throw it down with

all the rest. But when that person was not

going to leave for good, but they were coming back to let

everybody know I'm just temporarily leaving, but I'm

coming back here. What they do, they would fold

the napkin. They would put the napkin by

itself to let everybody know I'm coming back.

Significant here. I don't know.

You tell me, notice, But folded together in a place by itself as

if to say I'm coming back. Whether that's not a symbol and

whether that's tradition, I don't know.

I do know this. He's coming back, and if He's

not coming back, and that's the last verse we're going to talk

about in this sermon, we got no hope, but Jesus is risen from

the dead and He is coming back and because of that we have hope

and that's the only reason. OK, Matthew 28 again and verse

10 back to Matthew. Then Jesus said to them, do not

be afraid, Go and tell my brethren to go into Galilee and

there they will see me. You know the Lord's words here

echo the words of the Angel, except there's one exception.

Did you see the exception? As you glance up, do you see the

exception? The exception is the Angel says

go tell his disciples, please get this, Jesus said.

Go tell my brethren. Why does that matter?

You know what the word brethren means?

The word brethren means kin or brother.

And because it means kin or brother, let me tell you what

some people think he's talking about.

And maybe. But like I said before, I think

there's a better explanation makes more sense.

Some people believe because it says brethren, and that means

Ken or brother. He's talking about his own

personal step brothers. In other words, go tell them I'm

risen. So they finally get it.

They finally understand my mission.

They finally understand that it's complete and they finally

understand that it's fulfilled. Possibly.

Let me tell you what makes more sense in context.

He's not talking about his literal kin.

He's talking about his spiritual kin.

Now, why does that matter? Who's he talking about?

He's talking about men that forsook him and fled.

He's talking about one in particular who denied him three

times, even cursing and swearing.

I know not the man. He's talking about people that

turn their back on him and he calls them brethren and he

extends love. I'm going to tell you something.

If a child of God departs from the Lord temporarily, there's

changes that they need to make sure, and there was changes the

apostles need to make. I'm going to keep this series

going and we're going to get into the second conversion of

Peter that's coming. I'm going to keep it on going.

But you know something about this.

They had changes to make. They made a mistake, but they

were still the Lord's family. Sometimes we think, well, we're

not doing what's right. They're not.

Yeah, they are. They're brethren.

And sometimes in our life, we are the only light to magnify

the light of Jesus Christ so that we could be the lighthouse

to help them see their way back to Jesus.

Keep that in mind. Keep that in mind that even

Peter who denied him with cursing and swearing, I know not

the man Jesus called brethren. Then in verse 28 or chapter 28,

verse 11, now while they were eating the while they were

going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported

to the chief priests all of the things that had happened.

This is amazing to me. You got the women right, And you

got the women and they're on their way to tell good news.

OK, You got these guys, you got the soldiers going to go talk to

their superiors to present bad news.

You know what's interesting about that?

It's the same news. He's risen.

The women is wonderful news, Soldiers, terrible news.

Same facts, same story. He's risen.

You know, we've got people in every culture, in every era of

history that have tried to deny the resurrection of Jesus.

In fact, there's 77 theories that people actually have come

up with to deny the resurrection.

I'm sitting here. I'm standing here talking to a

bunch of logical people with intelligence.

We just read. He's risen.

Easy. The Bible says he's risen.

We find that the women rejoice and worship him.

He's risen. The soldiers knew he was gone.

And they go take the facts of the bad news.

He's risen and yet there's been 7 theories in history that have

come up with to explain away the resurrection.

Here are the seven. You may have known these, you

may have heard of these. I'll give them to you now.

The first one's called the swoon theory or the semi coma theory.

What's that? This theory said Jesus never

died, he was just really traumatized.

He went into shock, he fell into a semi comatose state, but the

coolest of the tomb and spices revived him.

That's not going to work. By the way, you know who came up

with that? A man by the name of Venturini

1600 years later. It took that guy 1600 years to

come up with that. And by the way, if that theory

was true, think of it this way, the Romans were very proficient

at crucifixion. You don't think they got the job

done? They got the job done.

And when they were still living, to expedite that, they broke the

legs. They didn't break the legs of

Jesus fulfilling prophecy, but they didn't break the legs of

Jesus. Why?

What was their reasoning? He was already dead.

Then they took the spear satisfying Zachariah's prophecy

and thrust it into his side, and from his side flowed blood and

water. Proving he was dead doesn't

work. But if this theory is true, then

Jesus in Luke 24 walks 7 point whatever miles to Emmaus

barefoot with holes in his feet. No, here's another one.

Believe it or not, the no burial theory.

In other words, he wasn't there on Sunday because he wasn't

there on Friday. Well, think about it.

If that's the case, why would they seal a tomb with nobody in

it? And then why would they put a

guard guarding a tomb with nobody in it if he was not

buried? You know, the Bible says his

grave was to be assigned among wicked men, but he would be with

the rich man in his death. I quoted that.

Do you know where they put the wicked men?

They sent him to the valley of Hinnom in a city waste dump.

And they threw their bodies where the where the fires burned

incessantly. It was like a dump.

Go to the dump and they burned trash.

That's where wicked men went. So the no burial theory was he

wasn't buried, he was just thrown to the waist up.

Why steal the tomb? Why guard the tomb if you saw

there was no one in it? Here's another one.

These get more and more ridiculous.

How about the hallucination theory?

That is that all the appearances of Jesus were not real.

They were only hallucinations. Why would the disciples please

get this? Why would the disciples

hallucinate a resurrection when they never expected to have a

resurrection? Do you remember when Jesus said,

Now I'm going to tell you what, I'm just a country boy.

I'm not extremely intelligent with the higher echelons of

academia, but I guarantee you what I think I would have

understood what Jesus said. Maybe not.

Maybe I would have been as dumb as the Galilean fisherman.

I don't know, but Jesus says I'm going to die and three days

later I'm going to rise. You know what they said?

Ask him what he meant by that. Ask him what he means by that.

Why would they hallucinate A resurrection when they never

anticipated a resurrection and then also die as martyrs if it

was only a hallucination? And again, again, the tomb was

empty. How about this one telepathy

theory? No physical resurrection, but

God sent back telepathic messages to the disciples that

Jesus had risen. Well, by the way, if that's

true, it wouldn't have been a telepathic message.

It would have been a telepathic movie that lasted 40 days.

Do you know that there's Learned?

Educated smart guys that have come up with this these theories

to try to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Oh, there's more about this one, the seance theory.

This theory was this, that a medium conjured up a spirit, the

spirit of the dead Jesus by the occult power.

Even with that far. So what about this?

If that's the case, how did he walk through a closed door and

how did they touch him? Oh, and by the way, tomb's

empty. Keep going back to that.

The tomb is empty. Here's another one.

This is number six, and there's only 7.

Almost finished the mistaken identity theory.

And this is just simply somebody impersonated Jesus.

Somebody else did it. If that's the case, then the

body would still be in the tomb. Finally, here is the last one,

and it's the best of the bad. It's the one that the Jews held

on to, and that's the theft theory.

The body of Jesus was stolen. My question is this, who stole

the body of Jesus? Was it the soldiers?

Was it the religious leaders? Well, it wouldn't have been the

soldiers. Absolutely would not have been

the soldiers. The religious leaders,

Absolutely not, because it would prove what they wanted to

disprove. So it couldn't have been them.

What about the disciples? It couldn't have been the

disciples. What are they going to do?

Overpower the guards? Rollback the stone?

Grab Jesus and unravel him with nobody looking?

No, no, you wouldn't steal a body, fabricate the

resurrection, and then die as a martyr.

Now we come back to Matthew 28, beginning in verse 12.

Notice what happens next. When they had assembled with the

elders and consulted together. Notice, please, they gave a

large sum of money, a large sum. I'm going to get back to the sum

in a minute to the soldiers saying, tell them his disciples

came at night and stole them away while we slept.

And if this comes into the governor's ears, we will appease

him and make you secure. So they took the money and did

as they were instructed. And this saying is commonly

reported among the Jews until this day.

Wow, look at that large sum of money.

You realize something? I'm sure it's leaping off at the

page to you. The lie cost more than the

betrayal. Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of

silver, the price of a slave. The lie about the resurrection

cost more than the betrayal. And as I'm sitting there in my

office this morning, it just kind of hit me, man.

That'll preach. Because I got into thinking a

lie always costs more in our lifetime, in our dealings with

people, a lie cost more. How many people have had a

parent that said it's always better just to tell the truth?

If you tell a lie, you got to remember what you lied about.

So you can lie about that. And it's hard to rely on and on.

It's hard, and you know what? You perpetuate the lie and it

goes on and on and on. But you know what's wonderful?

If you just tell the truth and then it's over.

You got ramifications to deal with and then it's over.

The price of the lie is always more.

I like this phrase right here. You know, the worst thing that

an honest man could ever do is make an honest mistake.

That's the worst thing that ever happened to an honest man is an

honest mistake. And then he makes it right and

he moves on. But a lie, a lie cost so much

more. It's the lie that actually

proves the resurrection. Nothing explains the empty tomb

except he is risen and I'm thankful.

In closing this morning, if Jesus were not raised, we have

no hope. We got nothing.

You ever hear that phrase, that common phrase, What if this is

as good as it gets? If Jesus wasn't raised, We have

absolutely no hope whatsoever. I'm going to tell you something

here. If you are suffering through

hard times, difficult times, painful times, medical issues,

whatever it is, spiritual struggles that you're doing

everything you can to just stay on the right side of that, I got

news for you. There's hope.

And it may not be even in this life that you have any relief.

Maybe you do, and I hope you do. But if you don't, there's relief

someday. There's hope, The apostle Paul

in First Corinthians 15 said. But now Christ is risen from the

dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen

asleep. For since by man came death, by

man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as an Adam all die, Even so in Christ shall all be made

alive, but each one in his own order.

Christ the first fruits after those who are Christ at his

coming, all because of Jesus. Jesus rose from the dead and the

the phrase firstfruits means this.

He wasn't the first guy to ever be risen from the dead.

Jesus actually rose people from the dead.

What that means is this. He was the first one to be

raised from the dead, never to die again.

And guess what? One day at his coming, we, the

children of God will be raised in His image, in His glory,

never to die again. He's risen.

I'm through this morning. Thank you for your kind

listening. Rejoice.

And let me just say, I know that sometimes people pick one day a

year to rejoice in the resurrection.

Let's not, let's not ever do that.

Let's rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ 365

days a year. And let's remember we appreciate

Jesus every day because you know what, Every day we live, we got

hope because of what Jesus did. Just keep that in mind.

We never close the service without extending an invitation

to somebody that might be subject to the gospel call.

The steps to become a child of God are very simple.

First you got to hear the Word of God.

Romans 10/17. So then faith comes by hearing,

and hearing by the word of God. But after you hear the word of

God, you got a choice to make. You got to either believe it or

not believe it. The Bible says we got to believe

it with all of our heart. Hebrews 11 and 6.

Without faith it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to

God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those

who diligently seek Him. Then what?

I got to change my waves. Simple.

I've been going to One Direction.

I got to change direction. That's all that means.

I got to repent of my sins. Acts 1730.

Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands

all men everywhere to repent. Then what?

I have to be willing to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of

God. It's the greatest thing a person

will ever say. Acts 837 that Philip said if you

believe with all your heart, you may.

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. But these steps lead us toward

the point of salvation. Folks.

We're still not saved yet. Until what?

Be baptized for the remission of our sins.

You know why? Because that's where you contact

the blood of Jesus that he shed for our sins that we talked

about. We assimilate the death, burial

and resurrection of Jesus at baptism like he did, and rise to

walk in newness of life. Mark 16/16.

He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he does who

does not believe will be condemned.

Is baptism necessary? We hear this a lot.

Big question here it is first Peter 321.

Let the Bible answer the light figure where in the even baptism

doth also now save us, not the putting away the filth of the

flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the

resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you've never taken these

steps of obedience, we'd love to assist you in that.

We stand ready, willing and able to do that.

Maybe you have taken those steps.

Maybe there's something in your life, it's just not what it

should be. Repent of that.

Confess that. We'll pray with you and for you,

and God will forgive and restore.

If you want to be in a class, come forward while we stand and

while we see.